


She Blinded Me with Science

by TheCaillic



Category: The Glass Scientists (Webcomic)
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Lesbian Character, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Period-Typical Homophobia, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23574712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCaillic/pseuds/TheCaillic
Summary: The Society for Arcane Science is the kind of place that attracts some of the most interesting people know to man.Two of these people were Doris Kelpie and Dahlia Little.The two of them understood the importance of the upcoming exhibition and while aren’t over the moon about having to kiss up to high-class snobs, they know that it’s what needs to be done in order to continue their work and stay at the society with each other. Due to the arrival of the infamous Dr Frankenstein, Doris and Dahlia find the society may be in danger of closing forever, and they weren't going to be thrown out on the streets because of some egotistical old woman.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Kudos: 6





	1. I Like You

“Now it is a tad small. I hope that’s not too much trouble Ms Kelpie.”

“Not at all Doctor, I tend to thrive in limiting conditions.”

“Well, that's good to hear. I’ll give you some privacy now if you like?”

“That would be good, Thank you again Doctor.”

The doctor said his goodbyes and closed the door as he left the room. Doris looked around the room as he pondered how she was going to set up all of the equipment and enclosures for her babies. True be told she may be exaggerating when she said she thrived in limiting conditions, but Doris has never been a quitter, and she certainly isn’t going to start now. 

“Maybe I can find somewhere else in the building for the enclosures and keep all my research and notes in here.”

Doris made her way over to her trunk and grabbed her tool belt out of it. Doris liked to be somewhat prepared for any situation, and a tool belt was always useful to have in most cases.

Doris made her way down the halls of the society. The building was certainly impressive. It must have cost the doctor and his investors a pretty coin. She hoped the doctor wasn’t a style over substance kind of man. She would be in quite the predicament if that were the case.

Doris quickly wiped those thoughts from her mind. From what she had seen from Doctor Jekyll so far was that he was a polite and generous man. He had given her a place in the society out of the kindness of his heart. Everyone else had turned her away, but the doctor was giving her a chance to prove herself. That was more than anyone else in this city had given her.

“Calm down Doris, there’s no need to get ahead of yourself. Just focus on finding a place for the cuties to stay for now.”

Due to her thoughts clouding her mind, she failed to see that she was about to slam right into someone. The poor girl proceeded to run directly into another woman

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Doris looked up to see a much taller woman. 

“It's alright. Are you okay?”

Doris felt her mouth go dry. She had met a lot of beautiful women throughout her life, but the woman standing before her was something else. 

She was a tall and dark-skinned woman with cute short hair and a lovely little star tattoo under her right eye. 

Doris suddenly realised she was staring at the poor woman after knocking into her and went red.

“Yes, I’m fine, thank you!”

“Well, that’s good. We wouldn’t want that pretty face of yours to get hurt in any way.” The woman replied while giving Doris a wink.

Doris felt like she was going to explode after that comment. Is it even possible for someone to blush this hard!?

Doris let out a loud and awkward laugh.

“Thank You!” Doris stopped and took a deep breath. “That's very kind of you to say.”

The woman gave her a warm smile.

“If you don’t mind me asking. What’s your name?”

“Oh! My name’s Doris Kelpie.” Doris gave her a small curtsy, and the woman let out a giggle.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Ms Kelpie.”

The woman reached out her hand for Doris to shake.

“Dahlia Little” 

Doris took her hand.

“Nice to meet you Dahlia. I mean Ms Little! Sorry.”

“It’s quite alright. I don’t mind you calling me Dahlia.”

The two of them continued to make small talk and eventually started making their way through the society with Dahlia introducing Doris to the other residents. 

“So Doris. What’s brought ya to our good old society?” A skinny man by the name Mr Archer asked Doris, while Dahlia absentmindedly started the various plants around the room.

“Mostly, marine life.” Doris responded.

“And you said your last name was ‘Kelpie’?” Archer asked.

“Trust me, the irony is not lost on me. But I’ve always had a fascination with creatures of the deep.” Doris replied with a big smile on her face.

“Well, the good doctor will certainly have a good time coming up with a name for ya.” Archer said.

“A name?” Doris asked.

Dahlia spoke from across the room.

“Doctor Jekyll likes to assign us funny little titles in order to make them more appealing to the public.”

“I’m a ‘Botanical Clockwork Engineer’. What was your’s again Ms Little?” 

“A Cryptio Archaeologist.” Dahlia replied in a bored tone.

“Ah yes, I remember now. It’s almost impossible to keep up with all the fancy names around here.” Archer laughed.

Doris paused for a second. A title? She never had anything like that before. She wondered what her’s would be. She supposed that anything sounded better than ‘Look at my water babies, aren't they amazing’.

“Anyway, how many creatures are you studying at the moment?” Archer’s roommate, Mr Bird, asked.

“I already have a couple that a friend of mine will be delivering here in a couple of days.”

“Where do you plan on keeping your little friends?” Bird asked.

“Oh well, I haven’t quite found the right place yet,” Doris said while rubbing the back of her head. Dahlia looked over to them for a second but quickly turned back to her plant watching.

Doris continued to talk with Archer and Bird for another hour or so but eventually made her way out of the room with Dahlia by her side.

“Those two are very nice.”

“You’re lucky. I think that they were being extra polite today.” Dahlia said.

“Oh, come now! They’re perfectly nice!”

Dahlia gave Doris a strange look.

“Do you mind doing me a favour Doris?”

Doris was surprised by Dahlia's sudden request. For some strange reason, despite only meeting Dahlia earlier that day, Doris felt safe around her, so she happily agreed.

“What’s the favour?”

“Can you point your room out to me?”

“Oh, it’s just over there,” Doris said while pointing to one of the higher floors of the society. She turned back to Dahlia to see an excited look on her face. 

“I have a proposal for you Ms Kelpie.” Dahlia said with a cheeky look that Doris suspected she would be seeing a lot in the future.

Dahlia proceeded to explain to Doris how her room was just below Doris’ and how she has far too much space in there.

“I tend to travel a lot, so I don’t have any use for all the extra space. You would make much better use of it.” 

“I don’t know what to say! Just... Thank you! Thank you so much!” Doris yelled while grabbing Dahlia’s hands.

“I’m just trying to help out a nice woman.” 

A week later since Doris had first arrived at the society, and she had thanked her lucky stars that had taken the plunge and taken Doctor Jekyll up on his invitation to join. After Dahlia had shown her to her own room, the two of them started planning on what would be the best set up for Doris’ specimens. It had taken a fair bit of nagging to convince the doctor to let them knock out Dahlia’s floors so that they could build water tanks up higher so that they didn’t take up as much room. Thanks to Dahlia’s charm and Doris’ puppy dog eyes, they convince him that it was for the best.

The animals had started to get settled in after Doris’ friend had delivered them to the society. Doris was currently going through her notes on them to make sure everything was in order.

  * Subject 1 (Grindylows)



Number of Subjects: 2

Small slimy creatures with long fingers and sharp teeth. I had found the two Grindylows (who I have named Jessa and Marty) while travelling around Yorkshire. The locals seemed to be dead set on hunting the poor things down, and I was eventually able to make a deal with them in order to take the creatures somewhere safer. Jessa and Marty seem to be reasonably affectionate with one another, and I will be looking into their breeding habits at some point.

Grindylows appear to survive off of fish and other small creatures. 

The two of them have also somewhat gotten used to me as well. Marty will often bring me half-eaten fish as what I assume to be a peace offering or a thank you. I’ll have to do more research on this behaviour.

  * Subject 2 (Kappa)



Number of Subjects: 1

This strange creature was originally from Japan but has made its way over to England thanks to the Blackfog Bazaar. I liberated them after discovering how poorly it had been treated.

Hangi, much like all Kappa appears to have both humanoid and reptile features. He also likes to cause quite a bit of mischief but will back off if you seem genuinely upset because of his pranks.

I’ve been writing back and forth with one Ms Miki. We've been discussing the possibility of taking Hangi back to Japan after he’s healed from the injuries of his previous owner. Hopefully, in time we can release him back into the wild.

  * Subject 3 (Plimpy)



Number of Subjects: 6

Small, round creatures with two long legs that resemble fishapods and frog tadpoles. They can be found in deep lakes, and tend to feed on water snails and moss. 

Due to only discovering these creatures recently, I lack information but will be looking further into their behaviour and eating habits.

“You promise to write to me while I’m gone,” Dahlia said while packing various survival tools, and what appeared to be a gun into a small hip bag.

“I promise I will. Make sure you stay safe on your trip.”

“I will. I will.” Dahlia paused for a second.

Dahlia and Doris made their way to the front doors of society. They had their goodbyes and Dahlia headed out to god knows where. 

Doris’ newfound friendship with Dahlia and the successful relocation of her creatures had given her confidence that she never had before. Doris felt hopeful about her future at the Society for Arcane Science. 


	2. The Prickly Prick

It had been about two weeks since Doris had arrived at the society, and she felt that she was fitting in pretty well so far. Everyone had been surprisingly friendly towards her. For the first time in her life, people were interested, not just in her work, but in getting to know her as a person. Her father supported Doris’ desires to become something bigger, but would often admit that he could never understand her choice of career. It made sense, given he was a fisherman and all.

The other lodgers had shown an interest that Doris had never experienced before. It made her feel so giggly. Having someone give you a genuine compliment or ask you questions about your current projects. There was a point where Doris thought she was dreaming. That she would wake up back in her grandmother’s house at Loch Ness.

It sometimes felt too good to be true, but Doris did get a bit of a reality check when she found out that her fellow scientists were really bad gossips. They had an absolute field day when Doris first got to the society. Seeing her with Dahlia caused quite the story around the place. Despite being against spending rumours, Doris had to admit that they weren't entirely unfounded.

Doris knew that she had a bit of a crush on the archaeologist, but didn’t really know what to do when it came to these feelings. She knew for a long time that she was much more interested in women than men. Unfortunately, she could never express these feelings in public. It terrified her, thinking about what people would do. Doris decided a long time ago that she wouldn’t act upon those kind feelings for people of the same sex. Besides! It was just a little crush! Nothing more. End of story! Goodbye!

What were we discussing? OH YES! Gossip.

Doris was having tea with Miss Lavender and Mrs Cantilupe. The two of them were discussing ‘The Phantom of the Society, Edward Hyde’. Doris was never one for gossip. Her grandmother always told her it was rude to discuss fake stories about people you don’t know, and her father always said that Doris has much better things to do than gossip. But nevertheless, Doris had just started to get to know the two ladies and didn’t want to be rude by not accepting their invitation for tea.

The way her fellow lodgers discussed the man, Doris got the feeling that he must have been one of the most insufferable people to deal with. Most of the loggers praised his fast and loose lifestyle. As a result, it made Doris think that the man was an idiot who didn’t really care if he hurt others. Doris didn’t trust people who didn’t seem to have a care in the world. Doris believed that having confidence in yourself was good, but not caring about anything around you ……… that just wasn’t right

It was a bad sign. Compassion was just another part of being human, and a person who didn’t seem to have any didn’t sit well with Doris.

Doris continued chatting with Lavender and Cantilupe for a little while before Doris excused herself.

“Thank you for inviting me over today.”

“Anytime Dear,” Cantilupe said while giving Doris a wave.

“I hope you’ll join us again soon,” Lavender said in a hopeful tone.

“Will do.” Doris said happily while making her way out of the room.

Doris spent the rest of the afternoon checking up on the subjects. Jessa and Marty had recently given birth to several eggs, and Doris had been happily watching how the eggs had been developing.

She continued working for the rest of the afternoon, doing her usual afternoon checks and chores. When she had finally finished everything for the afternoon, she heard the clock chime for 7pm.

“Right on time.” She thought proudly to herself.

She made her way over to the small dinner she had made for the night and dug into it. As per normal, she ate her dinner while Marty tried to bring various bits of half-eaten fish.

After finishing dinner, she quickly made her way down to the entrance of the society. Standing in the entryway was her second favourite person in the society, Daniel Murray.

Daniel had been working as a runner for the society for about two months. Doris had met him a few days after arriving at the society when Dahlia introduced him to her. He would often deliver letters to Dahlia from her brothers back in her home country. The two of them seemed to be good friends, and after talking with Daniel, Doris could see why Dahlia liked him so much. Daniel had his own kind of rustic charm. He was the kind of person who you couldn’t help but listen to for hours.

“Hello Ms Kelpie, how are you this evening?” Daniel asked while pulling packages from the back of the cart he used to deliver packages to the society.

“I’m doing fine Danny. What about you?” Doris asked as she moved to help carry in the various packages the other lodgers had ordered.

“Same old, but can’t complain. Otherwise, they’ll fire me.” Daniel joked.

“They can’t fire the best runner in London! There’d be riots.”

“Riots?”

“Well, mostly from Dahlia and I, but I can assure you Jekyll would regret firing you after I give him a piece of my mind.”

Daniel laughed. “You’re too sweet, you know that right.”

“Never noticed,” Doris said with a cheeky smile. “Have Dahlia’s brothers sent any more letters?”

“Is the sky still blue?” he sarcastically asked. “In other news, I have something for you.”

He proceeded to pull out Dahlia’s letters along with a package and two other letters with Doris’s name on them out of his pockets.

“I GOT MAIL?!” Doris said a bit louder she meant to. She excitingly accepted them all from Daniel and quickly looked them over.

“Awww, it’s like watching a kid see their present on Christmas morning,” Daniel said fondly.

Doris felt her cheeks go red with embarrassment. “Thank you for delivering these.”

“Just doing my job Ms Kelpie. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d better get out of here before he notices I’m here.”

Doris and Daniel said their goodbyes and Doris started making her way back to her room. While doing so, she opened up one of her letters.

{Dear Doris}  
I don’t really know what to say. I guess that I'm proud of you and that I’m glad that you found a place that makes you happy. Not much is going on at home. Your grandmother and I are doing just fine.  
And I am going to try and write to you more. I miss you  
Your grandmother misses you a lot, and she wanted me to send you some sketching pencils. She keeps going on about how much you draw in your study notes, and you could always use a couple of extras.  
{Dad}

Doris could feel a massive smile form on her face. Her father had actually written her a letter! And also even sent it! Sure, it was a very short letter, but given her father's record of having a hard time in terms of expressing himself, Doris considered the old piece of paper something special.

When Doris noticed someone heading towards her, she tried to move to the side of the hall so that she didn’t knock into them. This didn't do much because Doris felt someone knock into her anyway. Doris moved to apologise but was distracted by the sound of a rough crack. She looked down to see that the packages and letters had been knocked to the ground and unceremoniously stomped on.

Doris looked up to see a scruffy blonde man trying to sneak away from her.

“Excuse me!”

The man let out an annoyed groan. “What do you want?!”

Doris was taken aback for a second.

“Oh well, it’s just… you stepped all over my letters.” She said while kneeling down to pick them up.

“And?”

“Ummm,” Doris didn’t know what to say. She didn’t expect him to actually respond, let alone so rudely. 

“Maybe don’t do that?”

The man proceeded to let out a big laugh and continued on his merry way. Doris just stood there for a second in shock. She knew that she should have been paying better attention, but at the same time, this man had the gall to laugh at her after what he did!

Doris quickly started to follow him. “You can’t just go around stepping on other people’s things.”

“Why not dearie?” He said in a mocking tone.

“Jee, I don’t know. Maybe because it’s a horrible thing to do!”

“I don’t care about stupid things like ‘being polite’ dear.”

“REALLY! I never would have guessed!”

The two of them stood in silence for a few seconds. Giving each other heated looks and waiting to see who would quip next. Before neither of them had the chance to say anything, an excited looking girl in a maid’s outfit sneaked up behind the man.

“Edward, what the hell is going on here?” the girl asked.

“This pain in the arse girl has been annoying me all night!“ the man yelled.

“This man destroyed my property!” Doris yelled at the same time.

The girl looked back and forth between the two of them while Doris and Edward continued to stare daggers at each other.

“I’m sure that Edward didn’t mean any harm.” the girl said as she stepped in front of Doris and gave her a big smile.

“I just want him to apologise,” Doris said, and then looked behind the girl. “Oh goddammit, now he’s gone!”

The girl snapped her head around to see that Edward had sprinted down the hall and jumped out a nearby window while the two of them were distracted.

“Oh, so he is.”

Doris gave the girl an angry look and made her way back to her lab. She probably shouldn’t have been as mad as she was, and reacted the way she did. She was conflicted between minding her own business and wanting people to have better manners.

When she made it back to the lab, she quickly got changed into her nightclothes. She smashed onto her bed and decided to look over the rest of the letters. Before Dahlia left for her expedition, she had asked Doris to check all the letters from her brothers. It was mostly to make sure that they didn’t have any emergencies that Dahlia needed to rush back home for.

After Doris sorted through the general life updates and ‘how are you doing latelys’ she looked down at her father's letter again. Now with a big dirty footprint on it. She opened the package to see the damage he had done to that as well.

She opened the crushed box to see that most of the sketching pencils her grandmother had sent her had been snapped in half.

“Stupid blonde bastard.” she thought to herself. She tried to push the irritated thoughts out of her head.

She suddenly heard the door to the lab click and turned to see who it was.

Low and behold Dahlia made her way through the door while carrying a large bag with her.

“Dahlia, you're back already!?”

“Did you miss me?” Dahlia said with a small smile.

“Maybe just a little.”

Dahlia laughed and asked Doris if anything interesting had happened while she was gone.

“Not really,” she paused, “but I did meet this prickly prick earlier today.”

Dahlia thought for a second and suddenly a face of realisation formed on her face.

“Oh, you poor child! You meet Edward Hyde, didn't you?!” Dahlia said dramatically while pulling Doris in for a hug.

“That doesn’t sound like a real name,” Doris said while trying to hide her red blushing face from Dahlia.

“You’re absolutely right. Prickly Prick suits him much better.”

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Nah, I love it. Oh, I got you something as a thank you for picking up my letters.” Dahlia said while pulling something out of the bag.

"You didn't need to do that," Doris said. The red on her face became very hard to hide.

"True, but I wanted to," Dahlia said. She placed a small piece of natural opal into Doris' hand.

Doris' eyes went wide. "This is beautiful, I... I ... Thank you so much!"

Dahlia had a proud smile on her face. The two of them continued talking for another couple of hours. Mostly about Dahlia’s trip and Doris growing friendship with Daniel. Every time Doris saw Dahlia smile or heard her laugh while they talked, her mind kept going back to the same kind of thoughts.

It was just a little crush. Nothing more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Take a shot every time the word package or letter is mentioned in this chapter. Also, I should have mentioned in the last chapter that the events in chap 1&2 take place two years before the start of The Glass Scientists.

**Author's Note:**

> Come and visit me on Tumbler  
> http://thecaillic.tumblr.com/


End file.
